Things I wish I knew sooner
source: https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/ax8wiu/36_edition_things_i_wish_i_knew_sooner/ author: ArmaMalum This is not a guide or walkthrough. Just a collection of answers to common questions, including questions many didn’t realize they had. I refine and add to it where I can each league start. These are arranged in the order of about when one would need these little nuggets of info. If you've played for some time you will probably know a vast majority of these, but you'd be amazed at what you may have been missing. (Terminology guide for those pesky abbreviations) General # Real money can only get you stash tabs and cosmetics. If someone is trying to sell you currency or items for IRL money politely tell them to shove it. # Best tabs to buy are Currency or at least one Premium. Former for solo play, latter for the ability to sell items publicly. Both is even better. # Actually read the in-game tutorials. Back in my day we didn’t have no fancy tutorials and we had to figure everything out ourselves. Uphill. Both ways! # You will earn between 22-24 Passive Skill points through quests in all 10 Acts, depending on choices. # Pick one damage skill and stick to it. 99% of the time it is better to support 1 skill as much as you can instead of 3 different skills a little. # Life/ES > Damage when planning a tree. Shoot for at least 150% increased max life if making a life build. At least200% ES if you’re going ES. # Block chance, dodge and Mind over Matter are very powerful defensive options but are still not replacements for life/ES. # 'More/Less' are not the same as 'Increased/Reduced'. It's very important to know that. More specific info here # If you plan on purchasing anything in the game like tabs or a skill effect, get a league supporter pack if you can afford it. It is by and far the best bang for your buck since you get a lot of points as well the pack contents on top. Act 1 # You can buy skill gems from Nessa and similar vendors on page 2 of their shop (you may need to do a quest before that page shows up) # You can only have 1 totem up at a time by default. Specific effects like Searing Bond or Multiple Totems Support can change that # Doing a Trial of Ascendency is league-wide. Meaning doing it once in a league means all other characters in that league don't need to do it again. # Pay attention to skill gem 'tags', they define what support gems work with it (e.g. Duration, Melee, Bow) # The medicine chest quest gives you some specific gems (i.e. ancestral call) as well as a choice of flasks (most notably a quicksilver flask). Vendor Recipes to know: * 3 flasks (same type+tier)=1 flask higher tier * 1 Portal Scroll = 1 Wisdom Scroll * Iron ring + R/G/B skill gem = Ruby/Topaz/Sapphire Ring respectively * 1 item with 3 linked RGB sockets = 1 Chromatic Orb * Blue Wand/Sceptre + resistance Ring + Orb of Alteration = wand/sceptre with +1 to socketed element skills * Blue Wand/Sceptre + chaos skill gem = wand/sceptre with +1 to socketed chaos skills * Weapon + magic/rare Rustic Sash + Whetstone = Weapon with %Physical damage roll (higher if belt is rare) * Caster Weapon + magic/rare Chain Belt + Whetstone = Weapon with %Physical damage roll (higher if belt is rare) * Boots + quicksilver flask + Augmentation Orb = Blue boots with 10% movespeed roll. This can be repeated for an additional +5% on the movespeed roll, up to 30% (NOTE: max % is limited by iLvl) * Orb of Transmutation/Orb of Alteration/Blacksmith’s Whetstone = 4 Wisdom Scrolls Act 2 # Support gems increase the mana cost of an ability, more linked supports = more mana spent # Just because it's unique does not mean it's good. Well-rolled rares can and often are better options than uniques. Read the text. # Mana reservation does not decrease max mana. This is relevant to effects like base mana regen or Arcane Surge. # You can change your bandit reward later # Don't forget to go back to lioneye’s watch (Act 1) after you open the south passage # If you kill all 3 bandits you get +2 passive skill points from Eramir (old dude sitting in Forest Encampment) as opposed to the specific effects from the bandits. # DEX requirement gear favor green sockets, STR pieces favor red and INT pieces favor blue. Hybrid pieces follow this logic # You can get additional respec points from Orbs of Regret but remember, they're not free and you need one for every point you want to backtrack. Act 3 # You don't need to do Labyrinth immediately, you can come back when you're overleveled # You can only have 1 curse at a time on enemies barring specific effects # You can respec ascendancy nodes but they cost more refund points per node (5). If you want to change ascendency completely you’ll need to unspec out of all ascendency nodes and do any level of labyrinth again. # Curses always have Less effect on Bosses (e.g. Dominus, Piety, Izaro) # You can use Scrolls of Wisdom and other currency like Orb of Chance on Strongboxes # Completing the quest in 'The Library' (connected to the gardens), you will have access to an NPC that sells nearly every skill gem. # Quality items (whetstone, scrap, bauble) will give 5% to a white item, 2% to magic and 1% to rare/unique items up to 20%. (GCP's always give 1% to gems) This applies to maps as well! Vendor Recipes to know: * Flasks with a sum quality of 40% or one 20% flask= Glassblower Bauble * Gems with a sum quality of 40% or one 20% gem= Gemcutter's Prism * 1 of each Two-Stone Ring = 1 Prismatic Ring Act 4 # Life/Mana Flask effects will end once you hit full life/mana respectively. This includes effects from affixes like freeze immunity # Read 'Trigger' support gems carefully. Cast on Critical, for example, only works with an attack triggering a spell # Going back to the Aqueducts or Dried Lake is a good way to get a few levels if you feel behind. # Make sure you have life rolls on some of your gear at this point. (ES focused builds should always shoot for ‘% increased ES’ anytime they can) # You can craft affixes on gear from the crafting bench in your hideout. This is very important for keeping your resistances capped. # Skill gems in your alternate set of weapons will also gain exp # Elemental resistance has a cap of 75% barring specific effects (e.g. Purity of X aura). The game is tuned to expectyou to be at this cap past Act 4 or so. # Don't worry too much about Chaos resistance, it's not a common damage to be thrown at you. It’s nice to have but isn’t worth sacrificing an elemental res. # The tooltips for Golem skills giving increased minion life/damage is local only to that golem. # Aqueducts and it's later incarnation Blood Aqueducts in Act 9 contain the divination card 'Humility' which can give you a Tabula Rasa (the best leveling unique in the game). Vendor Recipes to know: * Skill gem + Orb of Scouring = Skill gem with -1 level * Skill gem + Orb of Regret - Skill gem at level 1 Act 5+ # Multiple vaal skills will divide the soul count amongst themselves and as such each will charge slower per additional vaal skill # Skill gem quality isn't always worth it # After progressing through each end-boss fight (Act5/Act10) your resistances will go down by 30% for a total of -60% to all resistances past Act 10, gear accordingly # Incoming chills, freezes and stun durations are based on your maximum life barring specific effects. In short, the less max life you have means longer you’ll be stunned/frozen. # Chaos Damage ignores Energy Shield and goes straight for your health. # 'Low Life' is defined as 35% max health or lower. Chaos Inoculation is not low life since it reduces your max health to 1 and you can’t be at 0.35 hp. This does make CI eligible for full life effects like Damage at Full Life support. # Dying after Act 5 will make you lose experience (5% total to next level), but will not decrease your level or put you into a negative value. Higher penalty (10% total to next level) after Act 10 # It is possible (after iLvl50) for 'large' items (Body Armour and 2H weapons) to get up to 6 sockets. Smaller (Boots/gloves) can still only get up to 4. 1H weapons and shields get 3. # A corrupted item (using a Vaal Orb) is not alterable except by crafting bench. But any alteration will cost an equal amount of vaal orbs. # By now you should have an "of Staunching" (anti-bleed) and "of Heat" (anti-freeze) flask. They help avoid many of the more common 'one-shot' moments you may run into. # A Divine Orb does not re-roll the numbers completely, they stay within the affix range that was already given. So a 6% Cold Res roll on some boots will re-roll between 6-11% and no higher. Be careful! (NOTE: legacy gear will also be changed to the current non-legacy version if a Divine Orb is used) # Lily Roth will sell every buyable gem (similar to but better than Siosa) but all at level 1. (Act 6+ after you do her a favor in Act 6) # Cast when Damage Taken is a popular trigger gem. An even more popular combo is to pair CwDT with a spell called 'Immortal Call'. # CwDT will have a higher ‘trigger’ amount with higher levels. Many players leave CwDT at lvl1 to proc the linked skill as often as possible. This means you can’t level the linked skill such either. (Only the linked active skill needs to be within the CwDT requirement) # Make sure to look for corrupted 6-link chests when you want to ditch your 4-link or Tabula. They're much cheaper than a normal 6-link and actually have rolls on them! Just make sure to search for the specific colors you need since you can't change them! # You can buy Glassblower Baubles from the weapons vendor on the last page in exchange for 4x whetstones Vendor Recipes to know: * Level 20 Skill Gem + Gemcutter's Prism = 20% Quality Level 1 Skill Gem * Item with 6 sockets = 7 Jeweler's Orbs * Full Rare Set Recipes = (Chance/Chaos/Regal Orbs) * 7 Vaal Skill gems + Sacrifice Fragment = Vaal Orb Hideouts # Hideouts will persist through leagues so feel free to put a decent amount of time getting your abode perfect. It’s not going anywhere. # The basic hideout locations are listed in the hideout selection when talking to Helena. # There are a lot of hideouts not listed in Helena’s default selection, most of these rare tilesets are in maps and will not appear everytime. Some can even require a large number of runs to find! (looking at you Tower Hideout) Lord's Labyrinth (Lab) # If you die you get tossed back to the beginning (Aspirant’s Plaza), unless you’re in a hardcore league, then you are still very very dead. # Look at the bronze tablet by every door, it will show you a map and reveal where an explored door goes. There can be dead ends in Cruel (second) and higher labs. # Izaro has different mechanics in his first two arenas. (Specific Info). The third arena will be a combo of the previous two with traps included. # Look for hidden rooms on the minimap! They can hold Darkshrines which can give permanent (for the lab run) buffs, a guaranteed unique, less trap damage and more. Hit tab and read the text at the top-right to see exactly what it did. # Uber (Eternal) Lab has trials that will only spawn in maps, randomly. If you need to get those last few go to Global chat 820 and watch for the trial you need. # Map layouts and Izaro's mechanics will change day to day. # Decorative Chests (marked on map with a hollow circle) give an item to make the next Izaro fight easier (usually instantly destroying/removing one of the mechanics.) Maps # Any maps dropped in the campaign will be tier 1. Anything higher can only be received via Zana, inside maps, or inside map-like areas like the Temple of Atzoatl. # All mods on maps will make them more challenging, certain mods will be better/worse for certain builds. # Reflect damage is one of the deadliest mods in the game, and has claimed the lives of many new and experienced players alike. Like certain streamers -cough- # Re-roll a map you don't like with a Orb of Scouring and the relevant re-upgrade currency (Transmute/Alchemy) or skip the Scour and go straight to a re-roll currency (Alteration/Chaos). You can use certain fossils on maps! # To use a divine vessel slap it into the map device with the appropriate map (there will be text on the atlas for it) and kill the boss. The filled divine vessel will then be inside the map device still. Don’t forget to pick it up and take it to Sin (Epilogue zone)! # Using a single sacrifice fragment instead of a map will generate a vaal side area. # Using a sacrifice fragment with a map in the device will increase the map's quantity by 5% per piece, up to 15% for three pieces. (When using more than 1 piece you need to use different fragments) # Sacrifice of Midnight (top-right one) is the most rare of the four. Don’t burn those willy nilly. # 1 of each sacrifice fragment in the map device will give you access to the Apex of Sacrifice (Atziri fight). This same strategy is also used for Shaper, the Pale Council and Uber-Atziri (four different fragments of the same set into the map device) # If you corrupt a map and end up making it unidentified it has the same affixes as before. So make sure to skim the affixes of a rare red map before corrupting it just in case! # Running a map unidentified will give an additional 30% quantity bonus. This does not apply to Unique Maps since their affixes are for the most part fixed. # The Item Level of an item (check by looking at advanced mod descriptions) is dependent on the monster that dropped it. And by extension the minster level of the area it spawned in. Want better rolls on the rares you're picking up? Run higher level areas. Vendor Recipes to know: * 3 of the same map = The next adjacent map (try different instances of the same map for a different result if there's more than one possible) * 20% Quality Stone Hammer/ Rock Breaker/ Gavel + any map = Cartographer's Chisel * 20 Chisels + 5 Orbs of Regret = Unshaping Orb * Full Rare Set of Elder or Shaper rares (no mixing) = 2 (or 4 if unid'd) Exalted Shards Text Commands/QoL sorry console players, I don’t know the button bindings for these if they exist. Feel free to share if you do! # Typing “/passives” will let you see any passives points you have from quests. And after you finish the campaign it will tell you any you are missing. # ctrl+enter will let your type out to the person who most recently whispered you. # ctrl+right-click on the door/doorway/gate/ into an area to give a list of all instances for that area as well, more importantly, giving the option to generate a new instance. Newer players: This means you can enter a new ‘copy’ of the area with everything reset. # Right click the level up icon on a skill gem level up notification to hide it without leveling the gem. If you would like to level it up afterwards the gem icon is in your inventory page. # To find the tiers and ranges of rolls you must first turn on advanced mod descriptions on options->interface->”Advanced Mod Descriptions”. You then must hit your advanced mod button while hovering over an item to get the pertinent info (default is left alt) # shift+click on a stack of items to have the option to take only a certain number of that item onto your cursor. This applies both to in your inventory and when removing from your stash. # Open chat and hit ctrl+shift+left-click on an item in your inventory to link said item to chat. After hitting enter the person you’re talking to will be able to hover the link and see your exact item. # ctrl+left-click on a master to open their relevant window. (i.e. Do that on Niko to open the delve menu) # Click on a skill in your toolbar and look at the top of the popout. The button labeled “always attack without moving” is a great thing to use on movement skills and some specific primary skills. What it does is if you target a skill out of it’s range it will simply use the skill in the direction of the click as opposed to moving in range and thenusing it. # shift+ctrl+left-click a currency in a vendor to buy a whole stack at a time. Save your fingers some torment. # Holding shift while using a currency will allow you keep using said currency. If you do this while having you stash open it will continue to draw from your stash stack of said currency if you have none in your inventory. Helpful Links (Look at the sidenav of this sub for more!) * POE Wiki * POELab - Labyrinth daily tracker. Someone else runs the layout and maps it out for you! Also includes shrine locations and Izaro mechanics as soon as they're found. * Path of Building - Downloadable, powerful build concept tool * PoePlanner Lighter, online build concept tool * Poe.ninja PoE trading/character analytics site. Look at item trends, skill trends and leaderboard breakdowns here. Great for up-to-date currency conversion rates and item pricing. * poe.trade - Player-to-player item trading site (not RMT) NOTE Real money trading is NOT supported or accepted by GGG you will get banned when you use IRL money to buy anything in poe that isn't from their own site/in-game store. * Vorici Chromatic Calculator A calculator to tell you the most effecient use of chromes for an item (we'll se if there's still a way to 'Vorici' an item in Betrayal...) * Mikelat’s Mana Reserve Calculator Online tool to assist with planning mana reservation (also can account for life reserved) * Filterblade Loot filter customizer * EngineeringEternity's Beginner Guide - Widely cited beginner guide. Look for his D3 transition guide as well!